Natural Stone Council Updates Sustainability Standard

The Natural Stone Council – a collaboration of natural stone trade associations to promote the use of natural stone in commercial, residential, government, institutional, educational, and all types of applications interior and exterior – announced updates to the Natural Stone Sustainability Standard (ANSI/NSC 373).

NSF International’s National Center for Sustainability Standards facilitated the standard’s development, including revisions, and published the updated standard in August 2019. The 2019 updates address a broad scope of issues including water, site management, land reclamation and adaptive use, corporate governance, management of excess process materials, and innovation.

Updates to the standard also address a wider range in variability of operations, natural stone dimensional deposits, and regulatory requirements across the country. The ANSI/NSC 373 joint committee, comprised of members from a cross-section of stakeholders within and outside of the stone industry, worked to update the standard with input from task groups. Along with the updates, the committee has re-energized its efforts to educate the design community about using the standard.

First issued in 2014, the Natural Stone Sustainability Standard establishes criteria and methods for tracking, measuring and improving sustainability in the production of natural stone, long regarded for its durability and resiliency.

The standard aligns with materials and resource credits for LEED v.4 and Living Building Challenge projects. It applies to all processors of natural stone, from quarry operators to final stone fabricators.

You may also be interested in this article about new additions to the Natural Stone Institute Resource Library